Cornbread-Makin’ Dress

My sewing has slowed significantly in this hot and sparkling summer. I am officially a pool bum, pretty much every decent day after work, and am enjoying every second of it. I have produced a (very) few goodies, however, and have some lovely WIPs piling up in my cutting room/basement. And I’ll be working on Macaron for Colette 2.0 very soon.

So why is this The Cornbread Makin’ Dress? The sheer fun and old-fashioned gingham and teeny-flowered scrumptiousness of the fabric I chose for this dress makes me think of my grandmother, who not only sewed cute dresses, wore killer hats, and was a good country cook (cornbread, biscuits, and all that), but was also a college-educated school teacher and all-around sweet person. I could totally picture her in a dress just like this working away in the kitchen. I think she would’ve been tickled that I sew and garden. She would have been 100 last month, and never got to see my latest exploits, although she did live to the ripe old age of 90. Here’s to you, Mary.

I knew from other reviews of Vogue 1236 that fabric selection is very important, because anything too stiff isn’t going to look right. I was originally going to make this out of a quilting cotton with a really cool guitar print, but thought better of it because of the stiffness factor. Plus I didn’t think this style would showcase the guitars very well. I’m going to let Macaron do that.

So, construction. This truly is an easy dress, but the pleats gave me fits as always. I don’t know why my brain can’t get the folding and stitching lines sorted out. Also I think it’s a Vogue (aka Vague) thing. New Look was much more straightforward for me. I also cut the facings a little off, so there was a bit of imbalance when I sewed the fronts and backs to each other. This was totally my fault, and I just had to do some creative tucking and topstitching to straighten it all out. But the pain was worth it in the end, and the front looks pretty cute.

I will reiterate that the fabric has to be light, like a seersucker, because you really want the crinkles between the pleats and the waist to fall just so.

A couple of great (MUCH better than mine) examples of this happy little pattern for you to visit:

A gorgeously pressed, non-crinkly version by the beautiful mystitchnbitch. Love it in that chambray!

And the heavenly sewbusylizzy version that made me add this to my Vogue shopping cart.

Here are some of my shots

Pardon the even more wrinkly than crinklyness of this. We’re RV-ing in beautiful New England and pressing is NOT a pressing issue for us. Even folding and/or hanging up clothes is not on our schedule.

Here I am, windblown in lovely Hyannis, MA

And being a HUGE fan of the group Boston, I absolutely had to have the experience of dancing in the streets of Hyannis. Luckily there was a band playing, so at least I had a soundtrack, albeit not Boston, sadly.

I’ll spare you a photo of the dress without a belt, but it makes the absolute perfect nightgown. Just like grandma used to wear.

Thanks so much. The Cape was awesome!! We extended our trip by an extra day and made it out to Provincetown, somehow finding suitable places to park that huge boat of ours. 🙂 I would definitely go back.

Thanks! I’m looking forward to the guitar Macaron too. Just made a super fun wearable muslin last night and the pattern is definitely a keeper! I’m hoping the guitar fabric and white leopard burnout contrast material play well together.